Good thread. As a retired Navy type I was able to use this gear in training (aviation gear, not identical but close) and carried some of it daily for years. It was good gear back in the day but it definitely needs to be updated. One of the reasons we considered it good though was because it ALWAYS worked. I don't remember a piece of gear ever failing.

The question of whether they ever test it and does it work when wet. . . when I first read those questions I almost choked from laughing, but then I thought a bit and wondered about some of the really early gear that was for show. Remember the life boats and "flotation" vests on Titantic, not quite enough to go around, all show. The gear now is tested hard. The gear we used in training was the same piece of gear they used the week prior and they'd use it again for the next class. It was used hard week after week after week. That was the same gear issued in the fleet.

There was a pilot who went in the water very near an aircraft carrier. Everyone on deck could see him floating as could the helo crew that would pick him up. But he still lit off every piece of signaling gear he had, that's what they're for, why waste them -- they all worked. Confidence builder.

Thanks Tom.

Some of the gear I had has already been replaced, I bought some of it cheap on eBay and ya'know what, it all works.